ABSTRACT
History, utopia, ethics: issues of this genre are rarely investigated in contemporary sociology. The history of sociology may in fact be char acterized in terms of the increasing exclusion of such topics from sociological analysis.1 Norbert Elias (1987: 150) has described this development as a “retreat of sociologists into the present.”2 Sociology is now much more closely linked to the contemporary world, its focus has been intentionally narrowed,3 and its orientation toward the present goes hand in hand with its increasing specialization and professionali zation.4
